In recent years, approaches are made, enthusiastically or actively, on an application of an apparatus, manufactured by a microprocessing technology, for mixing fluids within a micro channel, i.e., so-called a microreactor, also in a bio/medical field or a field of chemical reaction.
Conventionally, many of the microreactors are designed, mainly targeting so-called “one-step reaction”, for mixing only 2 kinds of reactants and thereby progressing the reaction. However, in recent years, it is expected to apply the microreactor into so-called “multi-step reaction”, too, for mixing plural numbers of reactants, sequentially, and thereby brining the reactions to progress.
In particular, among the multi-step reactions, it is already known that the reaction cannot progress, well, through the conventional batch method, in particular, in case where a product produced on the way of the reaction is so-called “intermediate”, since a fine temperature control and/or time control is/are required there. This is because, since the reaction intermediate is instable and short in the lifetime thereof, in general, so-called “hot spots” are generated, so that the reaction temperature rises up locally, and it may be dissolved if the time-period until the intermediate reaches to the reaction of a next step is longer than the lifetime.
As characteristics in a synthesis reaction by the microreactor are already known the followings, accompanying with reducing of size of the reaction field: (1) fast mixing can be made, (2) a surface area becomes large relatively to a volume of the liquid, an efficiency of heat exchange is increased, and a fine temperature control can be made, and also (3) a fine reaction time control can be made, by controlling flow rate(s) of the reactant(s), etc.
In particular, regarding the microreactor of the above-mentioned (1), for enabling high-speed mixture, various kinds of developments and studies are made thereupon. First of all, one is already known, which shortens the substantive diffusion distance of molecular by introducing 2 kinds of reactants in the form of multi-layers. In this case, in order to form stable layers, so-called a manifold (i.e., a dead volume) is provided on the reverse side of a unit for guiding the reactant,